I first wrote about Microsoft's attempts to get Windows XP on the OLPC last December. You may recall that James Utzschneider, the general manager of Microsoft's emerging market unit, was just about the make at trip to the OLPC Foundation.

Ever wonder why Microsoft releases these sorts of major updates via manual update first? Well, if you've been reading along, you know why (and we've seen more than one example of why). However, Windows XP SP3, after its initial fits and starts, is nearly ready to hit automatic distribution via Windows Update.

You can't always get it right. And Microsoft didn't get it right with one of the Bluetooth patches it issued last week on June's Patch Tuesday.

You may recall my earlier story on registry corruption for certain users upgrading to Windows XP SP3. The cases of registry corruption seemed to have a common thread: Symantec security products. Originally Symantec blamed Microsoft, but in a post on a Symantec support forum, a senior manager with Symantec indicated the fault may indeed lie with Symantec's products.

As I reported earlier, some users have been seeing an endless reboots after installing Windows XP SP3. Reports appear to beisolated to AMD-based computers, and isolated still further to HP computers. On Friday HP admitted the problems, and promised a patch.

A study by a decidedly partial observer, security vendor PC Tools Software, showed that Windows Vista, while much improved over Windows XP, is still far too vulnerable.

Now that Windows XP SP3 has been made publicly available and you must be ready to install it, there are few things to be noted related to Internet Explorer and XP SP3. IE Blog has posted about it in details.

Last week Microsoft had to delay the rollout of Windows XP SP3, and halt automatic distribution of Windows Vista SP1, because of incompatibility issues with Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS). Tuesday Microsoft announced that both Service Packs were again available via Windows Update.

Microsoft is under a lot of pressure to continue supporting Windows XP. While it continues to offer small tidbits of hope, for the most part the answer has been "No." At least, however, Windows XP SP3, RTM'ed last week, is now available for download.

Hopefully you read that title the way Steve Ballmer probably meant to say it on Thursday. You know, emphasis on the "HAVE" in a sarcastic way. Although I'm sure he didn't say it that way, he probably wanted to.

Many have been awaiting the day when they didn't have to install Windows XP on their Asus Eee PCs themselves, and that day has come, with Asus announcing in an emailed press release that selected Best Buys now have Asus Eee PC 4G PCs with Windows XP pre-installed in-stock. It also appears that "selected Best Buys" includes the online store.

As predicted, the 3rd service pack for Windows XP (SP3) was released to manufacturing (RTM) on Monday, April 21st. Also as predicted, Microsoft indicated it will be available for download on April 29th.